The present invention relates generally to frequency conversion devices, and more particularly, to devices having extremely wide band widths for converting to and from optical wavelengths.
It is well known that in order to properly process an incoming RF signal, it is required to down convert the frequency of that signal to baseband. A temporal analysis may then be conducted on such baseband signals via a digital computer. Downconverter functions are conventionally performed via mixing with a local oscillator frequency at an RF frequency. The difference frequency output from this mixing process contains the information from the RF signal at a convenient intermediate frequency for subsequent use. However, the bandwidth at the baseband frequency is usually small compared to the total RF frequency range of the processor. This narrow bandwidth inherent to the use of such a downconversion technique significantly limits the amount of information which can be obtained from a wideband RF signal or from a wide spectral range.